Julian Velard rose to prominence at a time when sensitive, piano-backed singer/songwriter music edged back into favor. His unique spin on the formula, owing as much to Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson as Elton John or Billy Joel, didn’t guarantee a lifetime of commercial success, but it ensured him a career full of unlikely viral moments and a dedicated fan base charmed by his cockeyed approach to pop.
Velard was born and raised in New York City. A graduate of Fiorello LaGuardia High School -- the arts-based public school immortalized in the film Fame -- Velard honed his musical craft at Hampshire College and started writing music in earnest (self-releasing an album, Nitetime, in 2003) while working odd jobs, from street sweeping to elementary school physical education. He started posting tunes on social media, which, in those heady days of Internet art, led to a contract with British label EMI and a move to London to start recording a proper album with producer Steve Power. Despite some buzz around debut single “Jimmy Dean & Steve McQueen” and the EP The Movies Without You, Velard’s complex chords and unique baritone didn’t mesh with the sort of FM radio fare popularized by Jamie Cullum or the Fray. Shortly before EMI’s collapse, he bought back and self-released his planned 2007 debut The Planeteer; it spun off an unlikely hit in the Netherlands, the upbeat “Joni.”
Both Internet success and the base he built leading up to The Planeteer ensured a consistent audience for his future endeavors. Once back in America, he became a fixture of clubs and cabarets including Ars Nova, Joe’s Pub, and the piano karaoke bar Sid Gold’s Request Room. He self-released an EP of covers, Another Guy’s Song, in 2009, and issued his next solo album, Mr. Saturday Night, in 2011. The songs “Love Again for the First Time” and “The Guy Who” became respectable streaming hits. An EP, Person of Interest, followed in 2012.
From there, Velard’s albums got increasingly conceptual. 2014’s If You Don’t Like It, You Can Leave was a jazzy song cycle devoted to his love of New York City that produced his first million-streamer, “New York, I Love It When You’re Mean.” Next was 2017’s Fancy Words for Failure, a rumination on fame inspired by a chance encounter with a busker during his days as a major label artist that became the song “The Night Ed Sheeran Slept on My Couch.” During this time, Velard also attracted side gigs performing on NPR’s game show Ask Me Another and even a recurring spot improvising songs on The Howard Stern Show.
A connoisseur of Stephen Sondheim as much as any piano-pop godfather, Velard wrote Please Don’t Make Me Play Piano Man, a cast album to a nonexistent musical, in 2020. Attempts at staging it were waylaid by the COVID-19 pandemic during which Velard, his wife, and children moved from New York to California. He soon found a home in Los Angeles theaters and comedy clubs, most notably serving as music director for the Give Back-ular Spectacular, a fundraising event co-produced by comedian Paul Scheer in support of the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild strikes of 2023. With producer Dave Way, he recorded and released his seventh album, 2024’s In the Middle of Something, a laid-back album about middle age. ~ Mike Duquette